The Marauders: Year Four

Command of the What

Command of the What

Professor McGonagall was in her office when Sirius got to the Transfiguration wing after bumping into Peter on the stairs. He stood behind one of the suits of armor - the one he bewitched to sing to Professor Minnie each year - and stared at the door of the office, trying to come up with a plan to get her out of that ruddy office so he could use the Floo Network. He looked about up and down the hallway, spotting a small cluster of Hufflepuff first years at the end of the hall, lollygagging about before heading off to their next class.

Sirius frowned, "Sorry you lot but you're gonna have to be scapegoats." He drew his wand and waved it.

There was a heart-stopping shriek from down the hall and the cluster of students broke apart like shrapnel as a great bang erupted down the hall, and one of them exploded into the shape of a billy goat. Loud, squealing bleating cries filled the hall and the student-goat panicked and raced down the hall, shrieking as they went, knocking into a coat of arms. The armor fell to it's side, slamming into the next one... and he into the next... and the next... so that the suits of armor were falling sideways one by one by one in a domino effect all the way down the hall, their helmets rolling off and banging about. Professor McGonagall's office door slammed open, "What in the name of Merlin's majestic beard is going on!" she hollered in her thick Scottish accent. She glowered about left to right, then noticed the goat at the end of the hallway, let out a cry of dismay, and rushed off to go investigate.

Sirius ducked quickly across the hall and through McGonagall's closing office doorway, unseen.

He could hear Professor McGonagall in the hallway shouting, could hear the goat bleating loudly, students laughing and screaming... He ran to the fireplace, grabbed the little jar of floo powder from her mantel, and chucked it into the fire quickly, not willing to spare even a moment. "Number 12! Grimmauld Place!" he said, stepping in with a lime green poof! and he was gone.

Falling through the floo network... spinning, passing countless fireplaces in the tesseract... on and on until he felt himself falling into one of them and he was suddenly upright, tripping over a log and hit the black stone tiled floor of the kitchen.

He rushed to push himself up from the floor, instantly in defense mode. He drew his wand and held it at shoulder level, aimed and ready... He stepped gingerly forward, careful to keep his shoes from squeaking in the absolute silence of Number 12.

There was a shouting voice... a voice that sounded like absolute agony... Sirius felt his stomach twist. "I'm comin' Rey," he whispered and he started forward more quickly. He paused in the entryway by the door, listening for a moment... and then he saw a flash of green light beneath the frame of the door of his mother's parlor and his heart very nearly topped.

But green light was only caused by the killing curse...

He ran.

Sirius Black had never run so hard in all his life.

He tumbled up the steps, smacking his face on the flight landing, but barely noticed it. "Reducto!" he shouted at the door and the handle and lock blew off and the door swung open and he stepped inside, shooting stunners as he went - a blaze of red flashing lights, eyes squeezed tight, shooting purely on instinct, and he ducked down at the last moment as his own stunner only just missed him, and realized there was nobody in the room, but the fireplace flickered as though recently used...

And he walked forward and his foot landed on something and he stopped and looked down..

There on the parlor floor, pale, ghostly white and quite dead, his jaw slack, blood dripping from his mouth was James Potter.